Learning to live with rivers—the ICE's report to government

Abstract

This paper reviews the technical aspects of flood risk management in England and Wales, taking into account modern issues of climate change, environmental impact, a catchment-based approach and experience from other countries in managing the risk of flooding. It represents a summary of the work contained in a major commission report by the Institution of Civil Engineers and reaches a number of conclusions, particularly that there are serious inadequacies in representing the dynamic effects of land use change, catchment process and climatic variability in flood assessment. The paper emphasises the need for a more strategic approach and highlights the fact that the UK should embrace the river basin modelling approach with more confidence than in the past.